Introduction

On June 11, 2017, there was a casting call for the second season of Jolie East-Miji’s webseries “B-City”. The purpose was to audition actors that were not part of the first season.

A casting call is one element of pre-production. According to Production for TV and New Media, there are two major ways to cast talent. One is the Casting Director/Agencies method. A producer contacts a casting director about the producer’s project. The casting director reaches out to talent agencies, places ads, and/or posts notices for a casting call. “Guerilla Casting” is another method, which bypasses the formality of the casting director and talent agent. This is typical of low-budget projects. The producer does the work of publicizing the casting call.

My View of the Casting Call

For the B-City casting call, there were postings about the casting call on social media and in publications such as Backstage.

I was present at the meeting to observe and learn (NOT auditioning ), as I had never been to a casting call. I was part of the first season and will be continuing into the second season.

The casting panel sat at a table. A static video camera was mounted on the table. Actor was directed to stand at a position in front of the camera.

The casting panel asked some or all of these questions to the actor:

How did you hear about B-City?

Some of the responses I heard were Dragonuk, Backstage, word of mouth, found out from someone already on B-City.

Do you have a monolog?

A monolog was optional. The actor performed the monolog, which was recorded.

For which character are you auditioning?

Some actors were trying out for more than one role.

The read was recorded:

Actor introduces himself or herself and states the character.

Actor reads from script or recites from memory – a few did it from memory. Off camera, one or more panel members recites the lines of interacting characters.

How do you feel about the character and plot line?

Jolie discusses the shooting schedule.

Do you have any questions?

Actor leaves resume, photo, and contact information.

Most auditions were pre-scheduled, but there was one walk-on that I observed.

There were also video submissions.

A callback will be held at a later date for those who performed well.

Conclusion

Finding the right actor to fill a role will being one’s script to life. It takes a lot of time but the results will be worth the effort. I learned a lot from attending this session. I will continue to document the second season of “B-City”.

For more information on casting calls, see Additional Information.

Do you have any questions about casting calls? Please provide your thoughts and questions in the comments. I would really enjoy hearing from you. If you have a topic in mind you would like me to cover, please let me know.